I'm thankful to be part of a family of gardeners. Growing your own food and making harvest meals has been part of my family for generations. When is a better time for a harvest meal than Thanksgiving?
I'm also thankful we have had a mild autumn so far here in Indiana. For some reason me growing sage coincided with me also being assigned to bring the dressing (aka stuffing) for the last few years for Thanksgiving. Because we have not had any long spells of cold weather, I was able to pick the sage fresh for this Thanksgiving side.
We also had Swiss chard, kale, radishes, and chives still growing. We massaged the chard and kale together and made a massaged salad for a side with homemade salad dressing. In case you were wondering what we did with all of those pumpkins were grew, we did use one for today. No, not to make pumpkin pie - that's my mom's dish. Some dishes you just leave to the pros. We roasted the pumpkins and the seeds and used it as toppings for the salad.
I was reading Erica Ballard blog post the other day about eating healthy for the holiday and I decided to roast the pumpkin and use it in a salad instead of making pumpkin bread drowned in icing (not that there is anything wrong with that) but I decided this year, I would bring something extra healthy. Also, a massaged salad is something my kids can confidently make on their own, so it gave them an opportunity to participate in preparing a meal for our family gathering.
Wherever you are today, I wanted to let you know that my family appreciates every blog, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram post and YouTube video you view and/or share. I am thankful for those of you who follow up with us with questions or just to share your gardening journey.
Enjoy your day and I hope you are enjoying some harvest meals too!
Love Gardener Shicole
A little bonus - Check out the slideshow to see how the salad came all together!